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December 22, 2009

Napaman’s Best Wines of the Year!

And
nearly half of them were not from Napa Valley.

Here
are my favorite wines of the year.

If
there is any thing to be learned from the list, it is that they are listed in
an order which relates to how these wines surprised me and from which I had no
expectation. And then BWAM!...
poured from the bottle, these wines overwhelmed me for their
sensuality, elegance, balance, harmony and overall achievement.

1998 Domaine de Pegau

Good friends from Calistoga,
Barry and Lea, brought this perfect, perfectly aged, 11-year-old Chateauneuf du
Pape to our home to complement Carol’s roast chicken dinner in the spring.

It was early in the year -- only
March -- and it was a crazy thing to say in print, but I eagerly identified
this as a probable candidate for Wine of the Year.

And as good as all the other
wines on this page were, none brought the surprise, elegance, balance, maturity
and pleasure to the dining table as this wine did.

A truly remarkable wine. And
opened exactly at its peak – not one day too young, not one day too old. The
vinous definition of Perfection. 100 points.

1990 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste

This Bordeaux Pauillac, was
served at a kick-ass dinner prepared by my sister-and brother-in-law, Shelly
and Mike, in Toronto.

The wine was filled with focused
raspberry and mature fruit flavors, which leapt from the glass in a way that I
can't ever recall experiencing a Bordeaux wine. It was almost as if some other
younger, fresher wine was in this bottle, and yet the provenance of the wine
was documented and its origin secure.

There were hints of graphite,
minerals and earth beneath the fresh fruit top notes; a very elegant, complex
wine in near-perfect pitch and harmony. 98 points.

2006 Ascheri Barolo, Vigna dei Pola

This was the top-scoring wine of a two-week trip through
Piemonte, Italy, in November.

Produced by Matteo Ascheri under the expert winemaking care
of Giuliano Bedino, this wine lifted me out of my chair and took me to a place
no other Barolo did on my wine tour.

Call this “Beyond Barolo” and you will understand what this
wine is about; other-worldly.

The 2006 vintage, which I tasted, is not yet released (which
is why a different vintage label is shown above), and probably will only make
its way to the US market by this time next year; but put this wine on your
calendar for release a year from now and circle in red:

“Get this wine when upon release in the fall of 2010!”

Matteo says that the 2006 vintage for Barolo (made from the
Nebbiolo grape) is the best vintage in the region in the last 20 years. It
sure-as-hell shows in this wine, a near-perfect example of great fruit turned
into great wine.

Pictured above are some of the
vineyard owners for whom Celia makes these tremendous wines, all which were
available to taste at the Acme Event:

Too much fun, too many wines, every one of them in the
95-98-point range.

(I guess I was being conservative; Parker just scored the
2007 Scarecrow a perfect 100 points.)

2005 La Vallentina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

$55 on the menu of L’Altro Buco,
a Vancouver, BC, restaurant, which I immensely enjoyed in the company of
locals, Scott and Dina Naimer.

Sipping this wine reminded me of
a bouquet of freshly cut jonquils at Easter time. Huh, a red wine? How odd. I
have never before made this floral connection with any wine, white or red, but
immediately upon swirling, and sniffing, the aromas – and implied aromas – were
present.

So were other top notes – of
fresh, fully ripe red fruits, lots of middle palate texture and a delicious
bright finish. What a fabulous and inexpensive wine, largely based on
Sangiovese 93 points.